Kidnapped By Mistake (COMPLETED)

Chapter 7 (edited)

"And then I think that maybe we could be more."

"You can't be more," She stopped herself after the outburst and looked around at the people who stared for a moment before going about their business.

"Why not?" I hissed conscious of the crowded space we were in.

"You'll probably have to ask your brother to explain that one." She snorted.

We both looked up as the door opened and Audrey entered with Maybella.

"It's about time," Jozelle announced. They all shared some kind of look that I wasn't in on.

"What's going on? What happened?" I asked and they all looked at me as though they'd forgotten I was there.

"Nothing it's taken care of. By the way, your brother came by the school looking for you." I rolled my eyes, of course he did. I checked the time on my phone it was only 2:30.

"Why was my brother at the school? I mean he was supposed to pick me up at 3:00, but he shouldn't be there yet." I voiced my concerns. "Wait. You didn't tell him I was ditching did you?"

"Yeah, I mean I assumed he'd be okay with it?"

"No, he just gave me a lecture today on skipping."

"In that case don't look up." Maybella glanced behind me just as the bells on the door signaled another person entering the cafe.

"I can't believe you today, honestly!" I grimaced at his sharp tone before turning around.

"I can explain." I started but he held up a hand stopping me, and then he gestured for me to get up. I threw a look over my shoulder at the girls as I followed him out to the truck. We both got in and I stared straight ahead feeling his gaze boring into the side of my face. "I can explain."

"Don't bother," he started the truck. "Oh, and you're grounded." I couldn't maintain the laugh that burst forth.

"I'm grounded? I'm an adult, you can't ground me anymore."

"I just did."

"You couldn't ground me if you tried." I insisted turning on him. "That would require you being home to ensure that I was following the rules of your grounding."

"Which is why there is something I need to show you."

"A present? You really suck at this grounding thing."

"It's not really a present." He continued driving taking a different road.

"Umm, I think you missed our house."

"I know where I'm going."

"Okay, I'm just saying."

"Just shut up." Touchy. I sighed and started texting with my friends instead of trying to reason with him. Clearly, he was still very angry about the earlier debacle. When we started driving on a dirt road I became concerned but still didn't question him. I started paying attention to the route we were taking and sat up straighter when we pulled into a winding drive that led to a house in the middle of nowhere.

"Whose place is this?" I asked seeing other cars and people on the property.

"It's ours."

"You bought a house?"

"No, technically it's dad's house but he left it to me in his will." I swallowed realizing that there was so much I didn't know.

"We had a second house and no one told me?"

"There are a lot of things that no one told you."

"Are you going to tell me any of them?" He flicked his annoyed gaze in my direction once before getting out. I followed suit and watched as people greeted him, throwing strange glances at me. I smiled politely walking quickly to avoid any awkward confrontations. He led me up the steps and into the house. Inside I was assaulted with the rich dark wood banister that led upstairs and the wood was carried throughout the farm-style house. Pausing in the hall I looked at the pictures on the wall, they were of our family. Our whole family. I paused in front of a particular one. It was taken when I was about four, two years before my parents were killed in a car accident. It was the summer and we were on vacation in BC visiting Vancouver Island. I remember it was beautiful. Everything was in full bloom. This picture had been edited to be in black and white but you can see that we are surrounded by flowers in a botanical garden. We look so happy. I moved slowly down the hall looking at the pictures of the past. There were no current ones because my mom was the photographer of the family. She always had to pack a camera whenever we went somewhere and I found it annoying always grousing about the number of pictures that we had to take. Now I'd kill just to hear her tell me one more time that she wanted to get a picture. Without thinking my fingers traced over her face and that of my father's, he was such a happy man. It always seemed that he didn't have a care in the world and he didn't anger easily. I'd give anything just to hear him laugh one more time. Mom was always the more serious of the two and she worried enough for three people, I've found that generally, I tend to be more like my dad. Or maybe that was just my imagination.